This invention relates generally to panty garments. More particularly, the present invention relates to panty like garments such as panty hose, tights, leotards, girdles and other knitted or similar hosiery or garments.
In the prior art a variety of panty hose garments have been designed. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, panty hose includes a pair of elongated tubular leg portions which may be formed by conventional circular knitting techniques. The leg portions terminate in their lowermost regions in tapered feet. The uppermost terminal edges of the leg portions may be coupled through a variety of techniques to form a panty which covers the wearer's lower torso. In the prior art various forms of crotch panels have been suggested, and various forms of intermediate coupling panels or structure, including gussets, vertical divider panels, elastic members and the like are well known. Some prior art includes leg portions which terminate in angled sections adapted to be interwoven or coupled to intermediate body or crotch panels.
Representative prior art may be seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,928,989; 3,109,301; 3,748,870; 3,956,909 and 2,962,884. Typically these references employ various forms of waistbands generally comprised of elastic members in the form of circular hoops which entirely surround the waist or abdomen of the wearer, lying in a plane perpendicular to the torso and above the navel of the wearer.
Such panty hose or knitted garments are generally produced upon conventional circular knitting machines which include a rotatable needle cylinder including a plurality of radially spaced-apart needles. Yarn fed to the needle during rotary knitting may be continued until various tubular legs of desired length are formed. When the proper length is reached, reciprocatory knitting may commence, whereupon various groups of needles in the cylinder may be moved to idle positions with the remainder of needles disposed an active position, depending upon the setting of conventional control mechanisms, which are well known in the art. Proper control setting may fashion proper terminal angled ends of the tubular leg portions of the panty hose, facilitating subsequent junctures with intermediate gussets or body panels. Such methods are thoroughly discussed in some of the above mentioned patents. Additionally, the structure of such machines is illustrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,282,998, and 3,269,148. Additional knitting machine structure may be seen in Italian Pat. Nos. 572,609; 572,829, and 582,628. Additionally, British Pat. No. 1,027,327 and German Pat. No. 1,206,674 are representative. U.S. Pat. No. 3,987,650 is particularly germane, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,937,040 further illustrates the process for knitting panty hose upon circular knitting machines.
As mentioned previously, the upper waistband ultimately formed through a variety of prior art techniques is usually comprised of elastic material, and usually is of a hoop-like configuration, lying in a plane perpendicular to the lower torso of the wearer and located above the navel. The hoop stress of the elastic waistband, which in effect pinches the wearers waist provides enough force to hold the pantyhose upon the wearer. Partly because of ineffectual waistband design, it has been characteristic of prior art panty hose that it "works down" on the wearers figure, especially if the wearer is active. Accordingly the waistband must be tight enough to counteract this phenomena. However, as the day wears on, tightness of the waistband can become uncomfortable. Similarly, as the panty hose is worn, the crotch panel thereof eventually will lower, and this may cause certain uncomfortable feelings in some wearers, while being embarassing and annoying.
The latter effect is aggravated by the fact that conventional garment waistbands are not directly coupled to the lower crotch panel, but are linked thereto with deformable intermediate fabric. It is thus desirable to redesign the waistband structure employed in panty garments whereby to avoid such discomfort.
Waistband tightness in prior art devices also cause surface indentations of tissue. Such tightness and constriction coupled with the downward pull of the panty hose may collect the surface tissue of the wearers upper abdomen creating and accentuating any protrusion or bulge. Although prior art panty hose has been suggested to effectuate stomach figure control, such designs usually consist of extra elastic panels which substitute discomfort for limited figure control. Designs of the latter type suffer from the lack of suitable structural anchors linked to stationary body features.
Another problem with prior art pantyhose waistband designs is that some women prefer to tuck the lowermost portion of blouses, sweaters etc. into the waistband of panty hose under a skirt or slacks for a smoother look. Where the wearer must bend over or otherwise engage in physical activity, particularly reaching, the back of the waistband of the panty hose often becomes visible and unsightly, as it may be seen above the waistband of the outer garment.
It is therefore desirable to provide a panty garment waistband design, and/or a waistband design suitable for use with a variety of other similar garments, and/or garments characterized by such a waistband design, which avoids the previously discussed uncomfortable and undesirable characteristics. Such a waistband should be of low visibility, and should provide adequate support to the panty hose to prevent it from wearing down as the day progresses, while avoiding uncomfortable pinching or pressuring of the wearer. Ideally some portion of the waistband structure should be comfortably "anchored" to a portion of the body.